Shifter weight bracket snapped

[LeeSmthsn]

1998 a3 Jetta tdi
208k mi., timing belt at 200k, 2 front end collisions

I've noticed some finicky shifting since I bought the car but have never had a true problem aside from having a plastic(?) cable mount crack at the shift tower. It kept me from shifting into reverse. This was fixed by a well-placed zip tie and duct tape 3 years ago with no problems since.

I let my friend borrow my car 2 days ago, and while leaving the parking lot, no more than 200 yards up the road, he went to shift into third only to find a "loose" shifter. When i walked up to see the damage, the shifter weight was laying loosely in the engine bay, unattached.

There are two thin mounting brackets on the bottom of the weight that show signs of breaking off., but I havent been able to see where they would correspond at the shifter tower.

Number 1 in the above picture i think.

Number 8 in above image perhaps?

Can anybody help me figure out a part number or perhaps even how to track this down?


I manually placed it into third gear and can limp around burning clutch, but I'd like to fix this myself if at all possible. Thanks other diesels geeks.

 

[alphaseinor]

98 jetta, might be able to find the whole rod assembly with reverse switch from a junkyard transmission...

Lelt me get a diagram

 

[alphaseinor]

This is the internal shift linkage... going to find the golf club thing

 

[alphaseinor]

 

[alphaseinor]

Did #44 break?
or 52?

 

[here2learn]

#49 tends to break a TON on those cars.

 

[LeeSmthsn]

Its definitely #44 in your diagram. The whole assembly could look better though.

thanks, yall

 

[alphaseinor]

1H0 711 051 B is the part number, the last time I bought that was about 8 years ago and it cost me $30.

 

[LeeSmthsn]

So I bought a shifter tower assembly from a forum member parting out a 98 tdi beetle, but I can't figure out how exactly to get my old tower loose from the transmission. I removed the two 1/2 in bolts nearest the tranny and played around with various gears without any budge from the tower. Haynes manual isn't helping either.

What am I missing?

 

[polaris600dragon]

Once the two bolts are out, you need to have the trans in neutral and it should pull straight out. You are probably fighting the sealant that vw put on there, I would GENTLY tap the tower side to side to break the seal.

 

[jimbote]

it has to be in neutral and tapping is required to break the sealant's hold on the transmission

 

[bigtom111]

I've replaced #44 on my 98 and #49 several times. I would have replaced both with new parts before replacing the entire tower with another set of well used parts.

 

[LeeSmthsn]

Thanks so much everybody!

A light touch of the hammer and chisel to the base of the tower loosened it right up. After some finagling, rough weather, and the invention of new vulgarities the shifter tower from the beetle slid right in, bolted down easily, and worked great.

I did notice that I had also broken #49 a few years ago but was still holding in place by the trusty duct tape. The new tower looks twenty times newer than my old tower. thanks to forum member jimbote yet again.

The shifting feels a tad shorter than it used to be, but the thing that stumped me was how 2nd and 4th (the two gears i have to pull towards the rear) feel like they're much further right than they were previously. Weird?